Psalms 36:5

36:5 O Lord, your loyal love reaches to the sky; ¹ 

your faithfulness to the clouds. ² 

Psalms 18:11

18:11 He shrouded himself in darkness, ³ 

in thick rain clouds. ⁴ 

Psalms 57:10

57:10 For your loyal love extends beyond the sky, ⁵ 

and your faithfulness reaches the clouds.

Psalms 77:17

77:17 The clouds poured down rain; ⁶ 

the skies thundered. ⁷ 

Yes, your arrows ⁸  flashed about.

Psalms 108:4

108:4 For your loyal love extends beyond the sky, ⁹ 

and your faithfulness reaches the clouds.

[36:5]  ¹ tn Heb “[is] in the heavens.”

[36:5]  ² sn The Lord’s loyal love/faithfulness is almost limitless. He is loyal and faithful to his creation and blesses mankind and the animal kingdom with physical life and sustenance (vv. 6-9).

[18:11]  ³ tc Heb “he made darkness his hiding place around him, his covering.” 2 Sam 22:12 reads, “he made darkness around him coverings,” omitting “his hiding place” and pluralizing “covering.” Ps 18:11 may include a conflation of synonyms (“his hiding place” and “his covering”) or 2 Sam 22:12 may be the result of haplography/homoioarcton. Note that three successive words in Ps 18:11 begin with the Hebrew letter samek: סִתְרוֹ סְבִיבוֹתָיו סֻכָּתוֹ (sitro sÿvivotayv sukkato).

[18:11]  ⁴ tc Heb “darkness of water, clouds of clouds.” The noun “darkness” (חֶשְׁכַת, kheshkhat) is probably a corruption of an original reading חשׁרת, a form that is preserved in 2 Sam 22:12. The latter is a construct form of חַשְׁרָה (khashrah, “sieve”) which occurs only here in the OT. A cognate Ugaritic noun means “sieve,” and a related verb חָשַׁר (khashar, “to sift”) is attested in postbiblical Hebrew and Aramaic. The phrase חַשְׁרַת מַיִם (khashrat mayim) means literally “a sieve of water.” It pictures the rain clouds as a sieve through which the rain falls to the ground (see F. M. Cross and D. N. Freedman, Studies in Ancient Yahwistic Poetry [SBLDS], 146, n. 33).

[57:10]  ⁵ tn Heb “for great upon the sky [or “heavens”] [is] your loyal love.”

[77:17]  ⁷ tn Heb “water.”

[77:17]  ⁸ tn Heb “a sound the clouds gave.”

[77:17]  ⁹ tn The lightning accompanying the storm is portrayed as the Lord’s “arrows” (see v. 18).

[108:4]  ⁹ tn Heb “for great upon the sky [or “heavens”] [is] your loyal love.”